Sunday, May 28, 2023
Royal Exchange, ManchesterDario Fo and Franca Rama’s bitterly comic 1974 satire is a timely fit for today’s cost of living crisis, here impeded by a cartoonishly bright set
An everyday s…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:06AMSunday, May 21, 2023
Old Laundry theatre, Bowness-on WindermereThe playwright’s latest comedy boasts some fine acting, and touches on big themes, but fails to engage emotionally
Alan Ayckbourn is a consummate …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:54AMSunday, May 14, 2023
Hull Truck theatreThis engaging production makes the most of a small cast and minimal staging, but needs more urgency early on
The plot of Jules Verne’s 1872 novel is well known. Phileas …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:02AMSunday, May 7, 2023
Royal & Derngate, Northampton, and touringThe classic novel reimagined as a sort of police procedural becomes a storm of ideas struggling to find definition
A barrage of sound mixes rain…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:36AMSunday, April 30, 2023
New Vic, Newcastle-under-LymeFrank Marcus’s 60s black comedy, about a radio soap star whose character has been axed, suffers from a rather two-dimensional makeover
“It’s BBC policy to …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:24AMSunday, April 16, 2023
Royal Lyceum theatre, Edinburgh, and touringOlder, American and previously divorced, Frances Stevenson frames the National Theatre of Scotland’s pantomime-inspired recasting of the novelis…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:54AMSunday, April 9, 2023
Royal Exchange, ManchesterA mainly black cast and modern setting inject this new production with a dose of symbolic power
Two sides of a family battle over land in Tennessee Williams’s 195…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:02AMGuildhall, DerryThis musical drama about the lives of Northern Ireland peacemakers gives a familiar story a new dimension
Beyond Belief, written by Damian Gorman and composed by Brian O’Do…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:03AMSunday, March 19, 2023
York Theatre Royal, and touringJessica Kaur captivates as a talented teenage runner trying to escape her father’s expectations and violence in a vivid, if overlong production
Run, Rebel is…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:30AMSunday, March 12, 2023
Shakespeare North Playhouse, PrescotPrescot is pitted against Scarborough – and women get their fair share of the limelight – in this engaging rewrite of Shakespeare’s comedy
When this…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:30AMSunday, March 5, 2023
Harrogate theatre, and touringImitating the Dog’s exciting live action-video fusion, which sets the Scottish play in a modern-day crime syndicate, leaves Lady Macbeth out in the cold
In tu…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:30AMSunday, February 19, 2023
Royal Lyceum, EdinburghThe concept is promising, and it’s acted with panache, yet Zinnie Harris’s Shakespeare adaptation falls flat
An essay accompanying the programme of Zinnie Harris�…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:30AMSunday, February 12, 2023
Nottingham Playhouse, and touringAn at times arresting production of Christy Lefteri’s bestseller is let down by its didactic structure
Nuri is the beekeeper of Aleppo, or he was, until hi…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:30AMSunday, February 5, 2023
Hope Mill theatre, ManchesterThis improbable mashup of Philip Sidney’s Arcadia and the pioneering LA rock band has plenty of rhythm but little dramatic jeopardy
Sir Philip Sidney’s 1590 …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:30AMThursday, January 26, 2023
Jacksons Lane, London Glass’s latest collaboration cites female power but suggests the opposite, and comes as London’s influential mime festival prepares to disperse
After 47 appearances…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:30AMSunday, January 22, 2023
Ustinov Studio, Theatre Royal BathThe Hollywood star is on top form opposite Dougray Scott in Edward Albee’s classic tale of a marriage gone sour
Edward Albee’s first short play, The Zoo…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:30AMSunday, December 18, 2022
Royal Exchange, ManchesterCo-writer Maxine Peake stars as an am-dram actor playing the former Commons speaker in Sarah Frankcom’s end-of-the-pier-style production
“But this isn’t histo…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:42AMSunday, December 11, 2022
New Vic, Newcastle-under-LymeAn underprivileged Alice fights for the wonder of book-learning in Theresa Heskin’s transformative take on Carroll’s classic tale
A stubby barge manoeuvres t…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:48AMSunday, December 4, 2022
Bristol Old VicThe final production from outgoing artistic director Tom Morris draws fresh weirdness from ETA Hoffmann’s source story
Tom Morris takes his last bow as the Bristol Old Vic�…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:06AMSunday, November 13, 2022
Taunton Brewhouse, and touringTangle Theatre’s dynamic five-actor staging features a dazzling debut from Daniel Rock
Founded in 2009, Tangle Theatre Company’s aim is to champion African …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:06AMSunday, November 6, 2022
York Theatre RoyalDespite some witty twists, the stage version of David Reed’s tragi-comic radio play is, well, a bit of a damp squib
By the end of the performance, a tang of pyrotechnics …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:24AMSunday, October 30, 2022
Crucible, SheffieldSteve Waters’s newly revived and updated companion pieces about global heating have lost none of their urgency
Steve Waters’s double bill about global heating, The Con…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:03AMSunday, October 23, 2022
Birmingham RepAnil Gupta and Richard Pinto’s updating of Molière favours caricature over character, offset by some dynamic performances
Anil Gupta and Richard Pinto’s updated version (c…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:03AMSunday, October 16, 2022
Theatre Royal, Glasgow; and touringA racist ode by the court poet William Dunbar is the problematic inspiration for the fourth of Munro’s James plays exploring Scotland past and present
Ro…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:55AMSunday, October 9, 2022
Theatr Clywd, MoldThis co-production with Chichester Festival theatre nails the atmosphere and the performances, if not Enid Blyton’s knack for a good plot
Here be: a dastardly villain dis…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:43AMSunday, October 2, 2022
Abbey theatre, DublinO’Brien’s new play, imagining James Joyce through the eyes of the women in his life, is the hot ticket at the Dublin theatre festival
Joyce’s Women, the opening pr…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:19AMSunday, September 18, 2022
Stephen Joseph theatre, ScarboroughDirecting a masterly production, the playwright follows three generations of women in one home, from 1952 to 2022
Alan Ayckbourn’s 87th play makes master…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:43AMSunday, September 11, 2022
Royal & Derngate, NorthamptonFive actors play more than 100 roles as Tati’s 60s satire is transformed into a meet-cute comedy of quick-change physical comedy
The late, great Observer f…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:43AMSunday, September 4, 2022
Dundee RepTony Roper’s 1987 play conjures a vanished world whose hardship and longing for community feel nonetheless familiar
The world of The Steamie is long gone. Public laundries, where…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:03AMSunday, August 28, 2022
Royal Shakespeare theatre, Stratford-upon-AvonJamie Wilkes’s Parolles steals the show in Blanche McIntyre’s unromantic, social media-inflected production
All’s Well That Ends Well is o…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:37AMSunday, August 21, 2022
Pitlochry Festival theatreThis playful adaptation of Charlotte Higgins’s book is charming, if a little lacking in narrative drive
How to dramatise a text that is part travelogue, part expl…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:49PM 
